H.I.5 (High Intensity 5)

HI 5 is Paul Katami’s new workout. I actually have a lot of Paul’s workouts on my wishlist, but for some reason I haven’t purchased them yet. This one caught my eye, as did his other new one Kettlebell Krush. So I splurged and bought them both.

HI 5 is an intense metabolic weight training workout. It’s actually very well put together. Paul crams a very intense workout into 41 minutes with adequate rest periods that allow you to regroup and come back to the workout strong. For this workout you need a mat and two sets of dumbbells, one heavy and one light. I used 15 and 8 pound dumbbells. This workout consists of 10 compound exercises. Each exercise is done for 50 seconds with a 10 second rest. So a circuit is 10 exercises and the circuit time is 10 minutes. You do 3 circuits. Now, the first circuit is done a little differently than the last two. The first time the first circuit is done, it is split in half. You do the first 5 exercises, take a short break then do the last 5 exercises. The last two circuits are done from 1-10 with no break.

In addition, the 2 minute warm up is actually just a preview of the first 5 exercises w/out dumbbells. So 2 minute warm up, then you do the first 5 exercises (each one for 50 seconds with a 10 second recovery between them), then you get a short break. During this short break you preview the next 5 exercises without dumbbells. Then you do those 5 exercises (each one for 50 seconds with a 10 second recovery between them). Now, when you finish this, you get a 2 minute break. Then you do a full circuit with 10 exercises. Another 2 minute break. Then you do the full circuit a third and final time. BTW–the breaks are active. You are actually resting at first, but as the time counts down you start jogging and even doing jumping jacks. So it is active recovery.

Finally, there is a timer in the bottom right hand corner of the screen counting down your 50 seconds of work, 10 second recoveries, and 2 minute rest period.

It’s a pretty great workout. As always Paul has a great presence on screen. He is very motivating. He has two exercisers with him. One is showing easier modifications and the other is showing advanced modifications. I stuck with Paul’s version of the exercises through most of the workout. I did do the advanced modification on one of the exercises, but other than that, Paul’s version worked for me. I will probably try to work up to some of the advanced versions over time. Tho it was even wearing her out. By the third circuit she even had to take a personal break from all of her tuck jumps in exercise 1!

1. Advance, retreat, swap (jump forward, jump backward, 180 jump)
2. (light weights) Squat to right, stand and do lateral raise, squat to left, stand and do front raise
3. Push up with outside wall climber (push up then walk opposite leg under you and bring outside leg to elbow)
4. (heavy weights) Alternating lateral lunges with row at the bottom and burpee in the middle
5. Crossover crunch (laying on your back, cross opposite leg over body (legs straight) and do crunch, bring both knees up and crunch in the middle, then do it on the other side)
6. Mat jump (get in plank on mat with feet together and on the outside of one side of the mat; jump feet from side to side of mat)
7. (heavy weights) Gunslinger bicep curls (reverse lunge with bicep curls at bottom of move)
8. Down dog knee tucks (get in plank, raise one leg up into 3 legged dog, back down to plank, bringing knee underneath you toward nose then back to plank; alternate legs)
9. (light weights) Air curtsey with reverse fly (curtsey lunge but back leg is elevated; reverse fly is done while holding the air curtsey)
10. (light weights) Rock up triceps (lay on back holding weights; sit up, driving weights overhead, do French press at top of move, then bring it back down)